The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-10-31
REFORM SCHOOLS.
a Writer Who Contends that Their Influence
Is Evil and that They Teach Crime.


Is Evil and that They Teach Crime.
Rev. Charles f. Thw1ng, in November Harper
In the United States are about seventy insti-
tutiors designed for the reformation OF young
offenders. Their inmates mum Der more than
nine thousand boys and girls The causes OF
commitment embrace nearly every offense.
from petty larceny to manslaughter This
means of amendment employed include not
only the removal Of the offender from the
opportunity of indulging his criminal tastes,
but also the teaching, of some trade.
es of knowledge, and endeavor to
form an upright character. Concerning the sue
of the reform school in the reformation OF
those intrusted to it, there is room for two con-
trary opinions In an examination of the con-
victs of the prisons of New York, which was
ordered by the Prison Association OF the State.
in 1873, it was found that of the inmates of the
Sing Sing penitentiary % 81 per cent had been
refuge" boys. AS the usual mum Der of inmates
of the reformator;es OF New York exceeds 5000.
it is plain that the large proportion OF them DO
not become inmates of prisons within the State.
AS to the reforms accomplished, estimates
vary from so per cent to %. But in these per-
centages included many children who,
without being vicious, but exposed and home.
less received into houses of refuge. The
in reform schools who are afterward convicted
of crimes is small. not exceeding 80 or 40 per
cent Yet statistics indicate that the influence
Of these schools in impressing evil habits upon
a certain class of their boys is exceedingly
strong Of the % 81 per cent. of the Sing Sing
convicts examined who had been in these
were habitual criminals. Some light is thrown
upon the methods by which the reform school
helps to fix the habit of criminality by the fol-
lowing conversation between a convict at Sing
Sing and examiner
"Please, sir, may ask you a question: asks
the convict
Certainly" is the examiners reply.
''Why do they send boys to the House OF
REFUGEE"
Isuppose it is to teach them to be better
'.Thats great mistake for they get worse"
How should that be!'
81 wouldn't be here only was sent to thse
what did you learn there that should have
caused you to be sent herel"
Il didn't know how tO pick pockets before I
went, and didn't know no fences; that's where
you sell what you steal, you know"
what else did you learn in the way of thiev-
ine9"
larry"
Another inmate-who at the age of seven
stole fruit. and was sent to a reform school at
Albany for nine months; at eight was found
guilty OF petit larceny, and sent to the House of
Refuge; at twelve was committed to Juvenile
asylum, and escaped three times in four days;
and three other times before reaching his major
ity was sent to reformatories, and who between
the ages of twenty-one and forry-one had been
committed to prison no less than ten times--re-
marked to the examiner:
Il never learned thing in my life in prison
to benefit me outside. The House Of Refuge is
the worst place a boy could be sent to-"
''Why sol'
Boys are worse than men; believe boys
know more mischief than men: In the House Of
Refuge learned to sneak-thief, shop-lift, pick
pockets, and open q lock-"
How did you get an opportunity to learn all
this2"
There's plenty Of chance. They learn it from
each other when at play"
In respect to the evil influence Of the reform
school upon certain boys, it is, moreover, worth
while refer to the experience of one of the
most learned and humane judges of the Supreme
Bench of Maine. Before his court was brouehs
a boy who had, evidently, in a fit of extreme
rage shot his father. He had, SO far known,
borne good reputation. and was q church mem
ber He pleaded that he believed the gun was
not loaded, and only in tended to fri ten his
parent. The jury returned a verdict of guilty.
Never before, confesses the judge,
did he spend many elespless
nights in determining a sentence 1t
lay in his power to commit the lad either to the
reform school of the State during the remainder
of his minority or to the State prison for n term
of years. He chose the latter alternative. and
the ground that in the reform school he would
learn certain vicious and criminal habits. which
would probably render his whole life criminal
and vicious. In the prisons separated from 9TH
er convicts. he would be in less peril of contain
nation Having solely in view the interests OF
the boy, the judge decided that the disgrace of
being State prison convict was less perifous
than the danger of education in evil which the
baser members of the reform school give their
purer associates